status updates – a celebration of postcards

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Hi Hilary! my health continues to decline. i have Achile’s tendonitis that started many months i finally had to get a big boot and go to physical therapy. i put all my art supplies [away] during the holidays [and] desperately wanted to paint, so i started bring stuff up from the garage, yay! as you can tell nothing happens in my life! Love C 1/17

The photo does not do justice to the depth of colour and texture that C has achieved in this hand made card. She’s mainly used oil pastels on this one, I think, and I love the colour combinations 🙂 You can see more of her work here

It’s a great status update, from earlier this year (2017), about the minutiae of a life that is lived dealing with debilitating health issues, and food for thought for those of us lucky enough to be currently enjoying good health and a full life – make the most of it and be nice!

C and I have been exchanging postcards for over a year now! Hers are always her own artwork, while mine to her are a mix of hand made and commercial ones that I pick up when I’m and about and think of her.

31.7.83 Dear Hilary, Hope you are well and are everything is working out for you. Everybody is well here and celebrating dads ….. birthday. Jim & I are still buying are house & once its through you must come for an overnight Hope to here from you soon. Love Gill. Love to Family

The copyrighted (1977 Millimetre Limited) design on the front of this card has a Christmas feel to it and this combined with the Christmas stamp suggests that this might have been a December communication. However, the card is dated 31.7.83 and postmarked ‘TWICKENHAM 2pm 1 AUG 1983’ It also carries the old favourite ‘Be properly addressed POSTCODE IT’ and, indeed, this card still arrived despite not carrying the postcode – nine years after they became a required part of all addresses!

Status updates: The big news about her first house purchase is thoughtfully contained to just the one line. It was probably her Dad’s 50th – an age so great (when you’re in your early twenties) that it couldn’t be spoken aloud!

Gill was, and continues to be, very good at the quick ‘keep in touch’ note, although these days it’s generally by email 🙂 I was back home after a period of travelling and had probably mentioned in a letter that I didn’t know what I would be doing next (or for the rest of my life!) career wise – hence her kind words at the top.

17.1.83 Dear Hilary! Here I am back in Denmark before I return to Norway again where I’ve got a job from 1 Feb. in an old people’s home. Hope you had a good Christmas and came well into the new year. I celebrated Christmas in the hospital and new year in Scotland together with my boyfriend. Now I’ve been busy trying to find somewhere to live in Norway and I finally succeeded. My new address is c/o ********** Oslo 1, so if you suddenly feel like it you are always welcome to write. Take care Rikke x

This card is 33 years old but the design seems very contemporary – good design is timeless, I guess. Obviously the bike and of course the Danish flag immediately indicate where the card is from, and the colours suggest fresh air, seaside and clean living – things that are associated with Denmark. It really is a great piece of artwork.

The command of English achieved by many non-native speakers always amazes me – look at the use of the apostrophe in ‘old people’s home’ – there are many born and bred with apostrophes who still would not manage that!

Without these small notes (status updates, if you like) we would have lost touch – the reason for sending me the card was to tell me the new address. People travelled and moved around, as they do today, but if you wanted news and to keep friendships alive, the effort required was considerably more than the click of a mouse and a smiley face!

Rikke is very bright – no surprise that she can use the apostrophe! We met when we were both working in Norway; sometimes it was quite a lonely life as an au pair and it was always good to meet new people. Rikke had a Canadian Maple Leaf badge on her bag and I stopped to speak to her, as I assumed she was Canadian (I was still in regular communication with the Canadian boyfriend at the time). We continue to exchange Christmas cards and Rikke and her family have visited us in the UK a couple of times – our children are now ‘Facebook friends’. I have yet to visit Denmark…